


One black coffee, milk no sugar

by holbitch



Category: Holby City
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, F/M, more characters are probably going to be added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-15
Updated: 2018-11-27
Packaged: 2019-04-23 09:22:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14329389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/holbitch/pseuds/holbitch
Summary: Jac Naylor has been going to the same coffee shop for years without any problems until one day, when her routine is interrupted by an infuriating new barista.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> It's a Jac and Fletch coffee shop au get excited guys. Basically Jac is a student at Holby University (I'm not exactly sure what type of student yet). Fletch is just a barista.  
> I don't really know anything about the inner workings of universities, just to warn you all. I also don't live in the UK so stuff involving money or vocabulary might sound a bit off.

For as long as Jac has lived in Holby, she’s been coming to the same coffee shop. Not because the coffee is particularly good or because she actually enjoys the atmosphere of the shop but because it's practical. It's equal distance from her house and Holby City University, where she currently goes to school and she can always count on it to be relatively empty when she walks in to place her order. Although, it is possible that when she says “walks in” she means “marches in” and when she says, “places her order” she means “barks it at the nearest barista”. It’s not her fault that her schedule is demanding and she doesn’t have time to exchange pleasantries with the hipsters that work behind the counter.

She’s been going to the coffee shop for so long that even though she’s running slightly behind schedule today, she doesn't expect things to be any different from usual. She strides into the coffee shop, checking her email on her on her phone and she sees that she has a new message from Serena Campbell, one of her professors. Serena has sent her a long email about something-or-other which Jac has absolutely no interest in reading. She is, in Jac’s opinion, an extremely tiresome woman.

“Large black coffee, milk no sugar,” she says briskly to the man behind the counter. “And make it quick, I haven’t got time to stand around all day.”

Her focus is still on her phone as she tries to mentally compose a response to Serena’s email without having actually read it. After a few seconds, she realizes that the barista hasn’t actually moved. She glances up from her phone for the first time since coming into the store and stares at him incredulously. He looks to be around her own age but he's not an oddly dressed hipster like the barista’s usually are. In fact, he looks pretty normal, save for the hideous green apron he's wearing. She briefly wonders how he ended up working here, before remembering that his life is of absolutely no importance to her.

“Did you not hear me properly, or something? One black coffee, milk no sugar and make it _quick_ ,” she says in a tone that admittedly might have been too loud for a coffee shop at 7:30 in the morning.

The barista doesn’t seem to be perturbed by her and instead raises an eyebrow. “Places to be?” he asks and Jac’s eyes narrow at the note of amusement in his voice.

“Well, I don’t think that’s exactly any of your business, do you? It is your business, however, to make me my order before I take my business elsewhere.”

“Noted,” said the man, and Jac notes angrily that the corners of his mouth are curved into an amused smile. “And as soon as you pay for your drink I would be happy to make it for you.”

“Oh,” she says after a second of silence.

“A large coffee comes to £4.00,” he says, gesturing to the total on the register in front of him.

Briefly, she feels embarrassed for yelling at him when she hadn’t even paid, before reminding herself that she’s not the one in the wrong in this situation.

“Why did you wait so long to remind me, then?” she snaps, digging around her purse for her credit card.

“Well, you were extremely preoccupied with something on your phone and since I don’t have anywhere to be,” he raises his eyebrows. That annoying smile is still on his face.

“Just make it as quickly as possible, I really do need to go,” she says handing him her card. He swipes it and hands it back to her, before picking up a large cup.

“Name?” he asks. For a second, she’s taken off guard. “I need your name,” he clarifies. “To write on the cup.”

“You don’t need my name, I’m practically the only person in here. Just make me a coffee and hand it to me.”

The barista shakes his head slightly and chuckles. “Yes, ma'am,” he mutters before turning around and making her drink. When he’s finished, he comes back to the counter and places it in front of her. “One black coffee with milk and no sugar for the nameless woman”.

“Thanks,” she says, giving him her customary Naylor eye-roll before grabbing her coffee and leaving the shop. If she hadn’t been running late she would have reached across the counter and throttled him. If he’s still working tomorrow she’s at least going to remind him of his place, although she prays she never has to see him again.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jac has another encounter with the infamous barista and Frieda makes her first appearance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a quote note if you read the first chapter last week: I edited a few things because I decided to age the characters down a bit. The only real difference is Jac is in uni now, she's not a professor. 
> 
> I hope you all enjoy this chapter!!

The next day, as Jac’s making her way out of her flat and towards the coffee shop, she’s all but forgotten about the exasperating barista. That is, of course, until she opens the door and is immediately met with some sort of awful song playing from the radio at full volume. 

Then, she sees him behind the counter. His back is to the door and he’s moving his head along with the music as he fiddles with one of the machines. As she gets closer to the counter she realizes, to her horror, that he’s actually singing along to this song out loud and in public. 

“What’s going on here?” she snaps once she gets to the counter. “Aren’t you supposed to be running a legitimate business here?” 

The barista whirls around, eyes widening. When he sees it’s her, his mouth curves up into his trademark smile and he lets out an embarrassed chuckle. “Sorry,” he says. “I didn’t hear you come in”.

“Maybe because you’ve got this awful racket playing at the loudest possible volume,” Jac snaps in return.

“Racket?” He asks, pretending to be offended. “This is Jimmy Winston and the Reflections.”

“And this,” Jac says, “is a supposed to be a coffee shop, not yours and Jimmy’s personal recording studio.”

This earns her a laugh, a real one instead of just a chuckle or a lopsided smile. He has a good laugh, she thinks without meaning to. It lights up his whole face. But as quick as the thought comes, she pushes it away. A good laugh or not, she’s still been stood here for nearly two minutes without any coffee. 

“Well, sorry,” he says again. “The other customers weren’t too bothered the music,”. He gestures around to the almost empty coffee shop, save for one scruffy looking old man who has fallen asleep into his mug.

She rolls her eyes. “Well, I’m here now and I would love to be served, at least sometime in the next decade,” she says pointedly.

“Yea, right, of course,” he says before turning away from the counter and busying himself with one of the coffee machines. “Tall black coffee, milk no sugar, right?” he calls over his shoulder. 

“Yes,” Jac asks after a pause. She wonders how he remembered her order until he calls over to her again. 

“I’m not a stalker or anything, don’t worry. This is just the night shift. We don’t have too many people coming here, and definitely not between 1:00 and 8:00 am.”

“Exciting job, then,” she quips.

“Oh, yeah, it’s a dream,” he says, finally turning back to the counter and depositing her coffee in front of her. 

“Thanks,” she says and reaches into her bag for her credit card while she goes to the register and rings up her order. 

“£4.00, for a large coffee,” he says. 

“Hang on,” she says, after she hands him her credit card. “Yesterday you made me pay for my coffee first. You acted like you couldn’t possibly touch the coffee machine until I had given you money first.”

“Well, technically that it is shop policy for the customer to pay first,” he says, somewhat sheepishly. 

“Technically?” she snaps.

“Well, it usually enforced when there’s more than, you know, one person in the store at a time. But you were being a bit snappy and it was almost the end of my eight-hour shift, so…” he trails off. 

Jac feels the recurring urge to strangle him over the counter. But once again, he’s taken up too much of her time and she’s going to be late for class if she doesn’t leave soon. “Unbelievable,” is all she says as she snatches her coffee and marches out the door. 

“See you tomorrow,” he calls and she can hear in his voice that his irritating smile is back on his face.

• • •

 

Jac walks through the door of her 8:00 am lecture a few minutes before it starts. She scans the rows of mostly empty chairs until she spots the back of Frieda’s head in one of the corners of the room. 

Although she’d hardly call them close, Frieda is one of her only friends. They’d met last year, during another early morning lecture. Jac liked the early morning ones because they left the rest of her day free for to do work and Frieda liked them because “they were the closest thing this university has to nighttime lectures,” whatever that meant.

Frieda is a good friend, even if she does wear horrifying skin-tight black outfits and too much eye makeup and occasionally drags Jac to seedy bars and forces her to drink her entire weight in vodka. 

“Hey,” Jac says, sitting down in the seat next to Frieda. 

“Almost late again,” Frieda says in her thick Ukrainian accent. “That’s the second time in a row.”

“I wasn’t late,” Jac retorts, pulling out her laptop and resting it on the arm of the chair.

“That’s why I said almost.”

“Yes, well, it’s not my fault. There’s an awful new barista at the coffee shop who takes forever to make my order,” Jac says. “Or, at least I think he’s new. The point is, he’s making my life exceptionally difficult by keeping me in the shop for as long as possible.”

“He seems fun,” Frieda says raising an eyebrow. 

“Fun?” Jac asks incredulously. “What about what I’ve told you could possibly make you think he's fun?”

Frieda doesn’t respond and instead picks up Jac’s half empty coffee cup and holds it between two long black fingernails. Jac looks at the cup and sees that the barista has written something on the side in messy black sharpie. 

“‘Large coffee, milk no sugar,’” Jac reads out loud. “‘For the annoying, nameless woman,’ oh, you have got to be kidding me.” 

Frieda smirks. “Like I said. He seems fun.”

Before Jac can retort that he absolutely is not fun, the professor walks to the front of the class and begins the lecture.

Jac takes a sip of her coffee as the professor talks, absentmindedly thumbing the writing on the side of the cup. She could just go to a different coffee shop, one with better customer service, but that would ruin her routine. She’s going to have to find another way to deal with this barista.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jac and Fletch get a bit closer and finally learn each others names, Sacha makes his first appearance and Frieda might have a date.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a bit longer than the others and it goes into detail of some of the other characters. Please tell me what you think or if you have any suggestions!
> 
> DISCLAIMER: jac, sacha and freida are all in medical science. unfortunately I am not in medical science so I don't exactly know what I'm talking about when I mention labs, etc. I also don't know how British universities work so bare with me on that.

The next few weeks continue in much of the same way. Jac would arrive at the coffee shop, and the barista would greet her with a smile and a lighthearted quip which Jac always found irritating but also endearing in a roundabout way. Then he would give her drink to her which regularly had some variation of “the nameless woman” on it and walk to class. 

Today is no different than any other day. Jac strides into the coffee shop and sees the barista leaning against the counter and looking at something on his phone, a tall cup of coffee sitting next to him. 

“You really shouldn’t pour my drink before I get here,” Jac says by way of greeting. “In case I find somewhere better to get coffee.”

The barista looks up from his phone and raises his eyebrows in amusement. 

“Very presumptuous of you to assume that this is your coffee,” the barista says, picking up the cup. 

“Unless of course, your order has changed to a half finished caramel latte with extra foam.”

Jac wrinkles her nose. That’s your coffee order?” She asks with disdain. “Why the extra foam?”

“And as for better coffee,” the barista says, completely ignoring her question. “I doubt you’ll find anywhere that makes it better than here, love.”

“Do not call me love,” Jac says, punctuating each word. 

“It’s not as if you’ve given me much else to call you,” the barista says grabbing a fresh cup. “I take it you’ll be having the usual order?”

Jac nods and watches as he picks up a sharpie, no doubt to write another tedious message about her not having a name.

“Jac,” she says suddenly, almost without meaning to. 

The barista pauses, the sharpie halfway to the cup. “He looks down at his shirt, as if expecting to see the name Jac on his name tag, but only says EMPLOYEE just like it always does. She realizes that he’s never offered his name either, not that she’s ever asked for it. 

“My names not Jack,” he says uncertainly. 

Jac rolls her eyes. “Obviously not,” she snaps. “My name is Jac, so you can finally write that on the cup instead of “the nameless woman” or whatever it is you write.”

“Oh!” The barista says, his face lighting up into one of his trademark crooked smiles. “Mine’s Fletch, by the way.”

Jac scoffs. “I’m not telling you to make friends, I’m telling you for my order,” she says curtly. 

For a second Jac thinks she sees a flash of hurt in his eyes and she thinks that maybe, she should have been less harsh but then she blinks and he’s back to his cheerful self, bustling around behind the counter to make her drink. 

“So Jack’s kind of an odd name for a girl,” he says as he works. “Is that short for anything or-”

“Just hand me my coffee, Fletch,” she says, putting emphasis on his name. “Or you’ll make me late.”

“As you wish,” he says setting the coffee down. “That’s £4.00 as usual.”

Jac grabs her coffee, rolls her for what feels like the hundredth time, pays and leaves. But as weird as it sounds, a small part of her is excited to see Fletch again tomorrow. 

•••

Jac arrives at her lecture just as her professor is setting up the podium. She spots Freida in her usual spot at the back of the room and walks over to join her. 

“More coffee troubles?” Frieda asks as Jac slides into the seat next to her. 

“It’s not the coffee that’s the problem,” Jac huffs as she pulls her laptop out of her bag and puts on her glasses.

“Oh, of course, it’s the barista committing the grave offense of writing the wrong name on your cup,” Frieda drawls. 

Jac glares at her. 

“And of course the even more terrible crime of making pleasant small talk,” she says in mock-horror. 

“You wouldn’t get it unless you actually met him. Or then again maybe the two of you would get along since you both enjoy making my life as difficult as possible.” 

“Oh calm down drama queen,” Freida says. “There are worse things in life than an overly friendly barista.” 

Before Jac can reply, the professor begins the lecture and Freida turns her attention to the screen and begins taking notes. Jac opens her own laptops and resigns to finish this conversation when the class is over. 

Three hours later, the professor finally ends the lecture and Jac and Freida hurry out of the classroom.

“God I hate lectures,” Freida moans as they walk down the steps of the science building. “I wish all of our classes were in the lab.”

Jac nods in agreement. “But if we don’t go to the lectures then we’d never know what we were doing during labs.”

Freida shrugs. “We could learn. Trial and error and all that.”

Jac laughs, but a part of her agrees with her. Lectures were so bland and uninformative compared to lab work. 

“Where are you headed now?” Freida asks, changing the subject. 

“To see Sacha,” she replies. “I want his opinion on one of my papers.” Sacha was her only other friend. She’d met his first year when he’d forced himself into being her partner for a group project. She’d found him extremely irritating back then, but he’d grown on her. Slightly.

“When you see him ask him if we’re still on for the gym on Saturday,” Frieda says. 

“You’re not going to come?” Jac asks, choosing to ignore the mention of Freida and Sacha’s strange gym-buddy relationship.”

“No, I’m meeting someone.”

Jac scoffs. “You’re meeting someone? Who?” As far as Jac knew Frieda didn’t exactly have an abundance of friends either. 

“Just someone from class,” Freida says evasively. If Jac didn’t know any better, she could see a faint blush appear on her cheeks. 

“Ok,” Jac says, raising an eyebrow. She doesn't care enough about Frieda’s personal life to press for more details and Freida would tell her if she wanted to. “Have fun,” she says, before walking away.

As begins walking toward Sacha’s house, she looks back to see Frieda checking her makeup in her phone camera. Whoever this person from her class is, they must be pretty important to her.

•••

“Frieda’s not coming then?” Sacha calls from the other room. 

She’s sat cross-legged on the sofa in his small university-owned flat while he bustles around in the kitchen making tea.

“No,” she calls back. “Apparently she’s meeting someone from class, although god knows who it is.”

“Meeting someone,” Sacha says, appearing in the doorway with two mugs of tea. He hands one of them to Jac and sits down on the chair opposite her. “I wonder why.” Jac can’t help but note the interest in his voice. 

“She didn’t say,” Jac replies noncommittally. “Although she did tell me to ask you if you’re still on for the gym.”

“Oh, yes I’d almost forgotten!” Sacha says. “We’re going to be working on-”

“Please spare me the details of your gym regime,” Jac says, cutting him off. 

“Excuse me,” Sacha says in mock offense. “Don’t pretend the gym doesn’t interest you, I see you on the rock wall all the time.”

“Yes, but I don’t tell you about my time there in great detail, do I? Anyway, the reason I came to talk to you is actually about my paper,” she says reaching for her bag. 

“Oh, come on,” Sacha says. “Let's not get to the work right away. I want us to catch up.”

“You want us to catch up? About what?”

“I don’t know, but that’s what friends do isn’t it? They talk about each other’s lives. Like, tell me about this barista. The one Frieda says you have a thing with.”

Jac stares at him incredulously. “I don’t have a thing with any barista,” she says, perhaps too defensively. “I don’t even know what a thing is. Is this was you and Frieda talk about at the gym? Just swapping stories about my personal life? Fake stories, I might add, since there is nothing between me and the barista except for my constant irritation.”

“Alright, alright calm down,” Sacha says, although Jac can see the amusement in his eyes. “Let’s talk about something else, then.”

“Yes, let’s,” Jac says, smoothing down her hair. “Let’s talk about you. Is there anyone you have a thing with?” She asks, putting a particular emphasis on “thing.”

“Well,” Sacha says. “It’s possible I’m on my way to getting a girlfriend.”

Jac wants to make fun of him for saying “possibly on my way to getting a girlfriend,” but a part of her is excited for him.

“Sacha, that’s great! What’s she like?” 

“Well,” Sacha says. “Her name’s Essie, and she’s a nursing student.”

“A nursing student?” Jac asks dubiously. “I hope she’s not another Chrissie.”

Chrissie was Sacha’s last girlfriend, and she had ended up cheating on him with a whole string of other people. Even though it was years ago, Jac maintained that she’d never met anyone as awful as Chrissie in her entire life. 

“No, no, she’s nothing like Chrissie,” Sacha reassures her. “She’s-”

As Sacha goes on to list Essie undoubtedly excellent qualities, Jac’s mind begins to wander back to what Sacha said, about her having a thing with the barista. She knows he and Frieda are both wrong, neither of them have even met the barista, but she can’t seem to get the thought out of her head.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Donna makes an appearance but someone else is nowhere to be found.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thing are shaking up a bit!! Also, I have no idea how long this is going to be but there's no ending in sight so buckle up.

Jac is on her usual early morning walk to the coffee shop. As much as she hates to admit it, a part of her is looking forward to seeing Fletch. Her interactions with him are comfortable and never too serious which is a nice change from everything else in her life. And she is a creature of habit after all, so like it or not seeing him has become a part of her routine. 

That’s why she’s surprised when she walks in the door and is greeted by a young woman with curly black hair and a broad smile. Jac walks uncertainly to the counter. Fletch and his annoying jokes have been a constant presence at the coffee shop for the better part of a month, and it feels odd not having him there. 

For a second, she thinks about asking the new barista where he is, but she quickly diminishes the thought. She and Fletch aren’t friends, after all, he is just someone who makes her coffee. Besides, she’d look dumb if she asks where he his and he ends up being back tomorrow. 

“What can I get you?” The barista asks and once again Jac feels odd. She isn’t used to telling people her order anymore, Fletch always knows what it is.

“Large coffee milk no sugar,” Jac says, handing over her card. 

The barista rings up Jac’s order and then bustles around behind the counter making her drink. 

“Have a good day,” she says brightly as she hands the drink over. 

All Jac can muster up is a non-committal grunt before she turns and heads out the door.

***

“On time for the first time in weeks,” Frieda says as Jac slides into the seat next to her. “No problems with the coffee boy today?”

Jac rolls her eyes and doesn’t say anything.

***

The next day, Jac is back at the coffee shop, expecting Fletch to have returned from wherever he’d gotten off to. He’d probably greet her with a quip about how she’s no doubt missed him and how his coffee making skills are unparalleled to any other barista. 

But, when she opens the door, she sees the same woman as yesterday standing behind the counter. Jac's mood sours. Today, her tight curls are in an up-do, but she’s still wearing the same cheerful grin. Watching her smile makes Jac’s mood worsen with every passing second.

“Large coffee, milk no sugar,” Jac barks before the barista can even greet her. She nods quickly and busies herself behind the counter making Jac’s drink. After it’s handed to her, she pays and leaves without another word. 

Each day Jac returns to the coffee shop before class and each day she’s greeting by the new dark-haired barista while Fletch is nowhere to be seen. At first, she thinks he’s off sick, then maybe he’s on holiday, although she wonders how much holiday a barista can actually afford. 

It’s just because he was nice and he made good coffee, Jac reasons with herself every time she feels a twinge in her gut when she walks into the coffee shop, and Fletch isn’t there. But she knows deep down that it isn’t exactly true. Her order isn’t really a challenge to make, and the new barista is as friendly as any person she’s ever met. The truth is, she misses seeing Fletch every morning. He made her day a little bit better without even meaning to.

That’s why after a week and a half of his absence, Jac decides she needs to bite the bullet and ask the new barista where he is. 

“Um, can I ask you something,” she says as she finishes telling the barista her order. The barista looks at her with shock, which is unsurprising since usually Jac just greets her with her usual impassive stare. 

“Yea, sure,” says the barista, uncertain but as cheerful as ever. 

“Do you know the barista who used to work this shift before you,” Jac asks, feeling the blood rush to her cheeks. This is without a doubt one of the most awkward conversations she’s ever had. 

Luckily, the barista only looks confused for about a second before her eyes light up. “Oh, Fletch!” She says. “Yeah, I know him, why do you ask?”

“Um,” Jac says awkwardly, wishing she’d never opened her mouth in the first place. “I was just wondering why he doesn’t work this shift anymore.”

“Well technically he never worked this shift,” the barista explains. “He was just covering for me while I was off for a few weeks.”

Jac considers asking when his regular shift is before she convinces herself that this inquiry is purely to satisfy her curiosity and she doesn’t care about Fletch beyond the five minutes she used to see him in the morning. She certainly doesn’t care enough to go track him down.

“Do you want me to tell him you asked about him?” The barista asks, and Jac is horrified at the thought. 

“Definitely not,” Jac says quickly. “In fact, you should never mention to anyone else that we even had this conversation,” she adds sharply. 

The barista looks slightly taken aback by the change in Jac’s tone, but she nods and gives her a smile before going behind the counter to make the coffee. 

Well, that’s the end of that, she thinks to herself. Probably for the best, though, she reasons. Fletch was annoying, and he was always making her late. Coffee shops were for coffee not for socializing. 

And as she took her coffee and walked out the door, she almost believed herself. But not quite.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jac is reminded of something she'd rather forget and our favourite boy finally makes a reappearance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll probably be going into Jac and Ollie's backstory a more when he makes his appearance. And let me know in the comments if there's something you want to see more or less of!

“Should we meet back here tomorrow night?” Jac asks distractly, thumbing through a textbook. She, Frieda and Sacha are all sat around a large table in the library, surrounded by piles of books and heavily highlighted notes. Their midterms exams are coming up and Jac has been studying every second she hasn’t been in class. Usually, she meets up with Freida and Sacha at night to talk through the more difficult parts of course. 

“I don’t see why not,” Sacha says, looking as if he’s about to fall asleep on a pile of his notes. “We basically live here now.”

“I can’t tomorrow,” Frieda says. 

“What?” Jac asks, looking up from her book for the first time in an hour. 

“I made plans for tomorrow,” Frieda mutters, not making eye contact. 

“Plans? Our exam is in eight days, what plans are more important than studying?”

“Are these plans perhaps with your mysterious friend from class?” Sacha asks, waggling his eyebrows.

“Maybe,” Frieda blushes. 

Sensing that this conversation is quickly veering away from studying and towards a chat about personal stories, Jac interrupts them.

“Well, we have been here every night for a week, you deserve a break. But for now I wanted to talk about something in chapter 17…”

But the possibility of gossip has breathed new life into Sacha and he’s clearly not prepared to let the opportunity of a friendly catchup slip from his fingers. 

“You know you’ve been making a lot of plans with this mysterious class friend recently, yet we never get to hear anything else about them.”

“There’s nothing really to tell,” Frieda says, carefully examine the chipping black polish on her thumbnail.

“Just let it go Sacha, we need to go back to studying.”

But even Frieda has decided to betray her tonight. She presses her charcoal lips together and twists the end of her long black braid around her finger before saying, “her name’s Penny Valentine.”

Sacha smiles, clearly loving very second of this. “So, what’s she like?” He asks, but Jac is no longer listening. 

The mention of the name Valentine makes her stomach drop and her hands clammy because there’s something so familiar about that name. 

Jac concentrates on the fuzzy memory in the back of her mind. It was in the middle of her second year of university. Joseph had already transferred to another school and she’d been spiralling. Throwing herself into to her studies all day and then going out and drinking every night until she passed out. Most of her memories from that time are blurred and trying to remember them makes her feel the same ache of loneliness that had almost swallowed her up. 

But even through the empty drunken haze she still remembers the name Valentine. He had been a year younger than her. Tall, bright blue eyes and he had kept up with her drink for drink. She had liked him at the time, despite him being a bit awkward and certainly drowning under his own pile of bad decisions and failed personal relationships. But he had been cute and more importantly, he had been wildly different from Joseph. Exactly was she had need at the time. 

“We were roommates in first year,” Frieda is saying to Sacha who is soaking up every word. Sacha loves a good romance. “But we never really got along, not until–”

“Valentine,” Jac says, interrupting what was undoubtably about to turn into a feature length storyline about Frieda’s love life. “Is she related to Olive Valentine?”

Frieda looks up at her, surprised. “Yes, he’s her younger brother. How did you know?”

“I knew him a few years ago,” Jac says. 

She hadn’t known Sacha or Frieda back then. They hadn’t know Joseph or watched her whole relationship with him deteriorate or seen how unstable she’d become by the end of it, after he’d gone. And now that she was a better person she certainly didn’t what them to know anything about it. That’s why it would be a problem If Frieda stated spending time with Oliver Valentine’s sister. He knew too much about her. 

“Oh,” Frieda says. “Do you want me to ask him about you?” 

“No,” Jac says, probably a bit to quickly. “You don’t need to mention me at all,”

“She can’t think of any other guys right now, her mind is too consumed with that barista,” Sacha interrupts in a sing-song voice. Frieda laughs.

Jac pinches the bridge of her nose and sighed incredulously. Some how the conversation has swung violently from one uncomfortable personal topic to another. Having friends is starting to seem like more work than its worth.

“Enough about the barista and enough about me,” Jac snaps in an attempt to stop this attack against her. 

But Sacha and Frieda seem to have built their friendship around ganging up on her and show no signs of stopping. 

“Sacha, she and the barista are having problems,” Frieda says with mock-sympathy. “No more writing on the cups, not more making her late in the mornings.”

“What?” Sacha asks. “Did the two of you have a fight?”

Jac has successfully not thought about the barista all week by throwing herself into her midterm studies and now Sacha and Frieda are undoing all her hard work. She doesn’t have time to be thinking about him and she certainly doesn’t have time to waste listening to Frieda and Sacha’s own relationship stories. 

“The barista doesn’t work that shift any more so you can all stop talking about him. And since we’re clearly not getting into studying here I’m going home. Sacha, I’ll see you here tomorrow night and Frieda, don’t wear your black lipstick on your date it smudges too easily and it’ll look like you have dirt on your face.” 

Frieda and Sacha exchange a look that she doesn’t care to interpret because she’s too busy snatching pages of notes and textbooks from the table and shoving them into her bag. Once she has everything, she swings her backpack onto her back and marches out of the library. 

* * * 

Exams are less than two days away and Jac has been holed up in her room for the past week, drowning out her emotions with books and practice quizzes. Study sessions with Frieda and Sacha have proved to be more and more social and less and less work and so she's forgone them, in favour of studying in her room, staying up for days at a time and living off cup noodles and instant coffee. 

It's just nearing one in the morning and Jac is divining into another practice exam when she hears a loud knock at her door. And maybe it's the fact that it's been days since she's seen another human, or that it's been 36 hours since she's gone to sleep and she is starting to get delirious but the abrupt sound startles her so much that she scereams- loudly and knocks over a cold mug of coffee she's abandoned hours before and a messy stack of notes. 

On the other side of the door she can hear laughter. 

She rolls her eyes, not bothering to pick up the spilled mug or the no doubt coffee-stained notes and instead hauls herself up and marches to the door. 

When she pulls it open she's met with Frieda, who is laughing so hard there are tears spilling from her eyes, smudging her perfectly winged liner. But, when she sees Jac her laughter dries up almost instantly. 

Presumably because I look so angry, Jac thinks.

"Jesus you look terrible," Frieda says. "Have you slept at all since the last time I saw you?" She sniffs the air between them and raises an eyebrow. "Or showered maybe?"

Jac rolls her eyes. So it isn't the angry thing. 

"Believe it or not I wasn't excpecting company at quarter to one in the morning," she huffs. 

"Clearly not," Frieda drawls. "It looks like you weren't ever expecting to see another human being again."

Jac moves her hand on the door, ready to slam it in Frieda's face if this is how the conversation continues to progress. "Did you actually want something or are you just here to annoy me?" Jac snaps 

"I came here to see how you were doing. You haven't been answering your phone and Sacha and were are concerned." 

"Well, now you've seen me and I'm alive so there's no reason to be concerned."

The corners of Frieda's dark red lips curve into a smile. "Actually now that I've seen you there's even more reason for me to be concerned."

Jac's eyes narrow and she moves to close the door. She really doesn't have time for this, especially with exams so soon.

"Wait," Frieda says. "Just come with me for coffee and some real food. You know as well as I do you can't study properly if you aren't taking care of yourself."

Jac thinks about it for a second, and reasons with herself that Frieda is probably right. A meal and a full 5 hours of sleep will do her good. 

"Fine," she says, grabbing her wallet from the hall table next to the door and closing it behind her. 

Frieda pauses. "You aren't going to change or anything?" she asks.

"Shut up before I change my mind," Jac snaps. "It's coffee at one in the morning, who could we possibly run into?"

The both pile into Frieda's car and she begins to drive. Jac has barely registered were they've been driving until she realizes with a lurch that they've stopped in front of her coffee shop. She freezes.

"Really? This place?" Jac asks, trying to keep her voice even and slightly annoyed. 

Frieda shrugged. "Like you said, it's one in the morning. There aren't that many places open."

She's right, Jac reassures herself, stepping out of the car. It's one in the morning what are the chances that- 

She pauses mid thought because just at that moment she sees him. Fletch. She watches, frozen in her place as he walks out of the store. 

Jac wonders if she should say hello, or maybe wave, before remembering that Frieda, queen of the vampire goths herself, thought that Jac had looked disgusting and undead. She can't even remind herself that she doesn't care about Fletch or what he thinks of her because she too busy panicking and trying to figure out somewhere to hid in case he starts walking in the direction of the car.

Luckily, he turns in the other direction and in a second he disappears around the side of the building. She looks up at Frieda, who is rummaging around in her giant leather bag and hasn't even noticed her 5 second freak out, thank god. 

Frieda look up, finally. "Ready?" she asks. Jac nods. 

She glances at her phone and the time blinks up at her: 1:04am. She knows what time his new shift ends now. Not that she'd ever do anything about it, of course, because she doesn't care. 

But now she knows. Just in case.


End file.
